The Health Survey for England (HSE) monitors trends in the nation’s health and care. It provides information about adults aged 16 and over, and children aged 0 to 15, living in private households in England. The survey is used to monitor overweight and obesity and to estimate the proportion of people in England who have certain health conditions and the prevalence of risk factors and health related behaviours, such as smoking and drinking alcohol | NHS Digital, UK

New posters, a booklet and an animation, co-designed by service users from Bristol Drugs Project, are being launched on 24 January to promote the benefits of low dead space injecting equipment for people who inject drugs, alongside broader harm reduction messages. See also related videos | CLAHRC, UK

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) drug and (b) alcohol treatment services have been commissioned by his Department in each prison in England and Wales | They work for you, UK

Survey. We have created this questionnaire so that older adults can share their experiences of finding and using help for alcohol use. We will use the information from this survey to develop a "Charter for Change", which will be presented to people who make decisions about how we help people with alcohol problems | DrinkWise AgeWell, UK

People spend more per gram on cocaine than any other drug, with a global average of €80 ($91) per gram.However, the majority of the economic gains don’t ever make it to the primary country of origin, Colombia | Talking Drugs, UK

What is the evidence base for the medical use of cannabis and cannabinoids? What is the difference between cannabis preparations and medicinal products and why is this important? How is this issue regulated in the EU? These and other questions are explored in this report which responds to growing interest in this topic as more European countries develop policies and practice in this area | EMCDDA, Portugal

Taking opioids for the treatment of pain has been associated with increased risks of crashing among drivers, but it is unknown whether this applies to all opioids or pertains to specific opioids only | EurekAlert, Norway

In a small study of infrequent cannabis users, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers have shown that, compared with smoking cannabis, vaping it increased the rate of short-term anxiety, paranoia, memory loss and distraction when doses were the same | News Medical, USA

Fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid implicated in nearly 29,000 overdose deaths in the United States last year, most likely spread because of heroin and prescription pill shortages, and also because it was cheaper for drug wholesalers than heroin, according to a report on illicit US drug markets by researchers at UC San Francisco | Medical Xpress, USA

Interest has been growing in the use of cannabinoids--the active chemicals in cannabis or marijuana-- for the treatment of epilepsy in children. A recent Epilepsia analysis of relevant published studies indicates that this strategy looks promising | EurekAlert, Canada

As cannabis legalization sweeps across the United States, producing $8.5 billion in sales in 2017 and a projected $40-50 billion by the end of 2019, growers and distributors in the nation’s 36 states and territories where cannabis is to some degree legal are clamoring for ways to position their products above the rest | Points blog, USA

Media reports last week linked the use of “nangs” to the death of a teenager at schoolies week on the Gold Coast. Hamish Bidgood died when he fell from a balcony. He and his friends had reportedly been using “nangs” that day | AOD MediaWatch, Australia

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